Lego Creations

About 10 days ago when I needed some time to get a few things done, I asked begged my children to go build some really cool stuff with Eriks' lego*s.  I think it's a written rule in kids' handbooks to bother their parents when they are on the phone.  I had been trying to make phone calls for awhile that day and I absolutely needed to get things taken care of.  I also promised Eriks that I would take photos of the things he and Emi made and post them on my blog. So I'm living up to my promise and posting.  Eriks is really great a building things.  The creations he built were pretty cool but he's created some even cooler things.  But my mission was accomplished by getting them to do this and most of my phone calls were made.

Changes Are a Coming

Since I am blogging on Father's Day I want to say Happy Father's Day to the love of my life and the father of my children, my husband, Lane.  He has done a great job with our kids and there are many days that all the extra stuff he does goes unappreciated.  As a woman with a CHD, there are days where I am not feeling as well as I should and he does a great job doing his job as dad and even my job as mom.  He has become pretty good at laundry since our laundry is downstairs and I physically cannot haul it up and down the stairs.  Can't wait to move into the new house where the laundry room is upstairs with the bedrooms!

I also want to say Happy Father's Day to my own dad who has overcome lots of challenges in his life, most especially beating cancer 3 yrs ago and getting through a hip replacement just last month.  You have shown that with perseverance, all obstacles can be conquered.

Now onto the rest...

I still can't believe that in less than a week, Lane's military career will be complete.  I've been a part of it for 15 1/2 of the 20 1/2 yrs of military service and it still seems like yesterday that I threw myself into this roller coaster life.  I've been looking forward to the day that it's over but just this past week I was ready to put the breaks on it.  I'm still not quite sure I'm ready for it.  Lane sent me a text message on Thursday letting me know that his career as a military pilot was complete.  They had finished flying the current airplane and there weren't going to be any planes to fly until after his retirement.  As soon as I read the text, I started to cry.  I'm still sad about it.  I didn't think this transition was going to be easy but I never thought it was going to be this hard either.  I feel like I have 2 personalities right now.  The Liene that is jumping up and down for joy that my kids will have the opportunity to stay in one place for more than 3 yrs and that I have a say in my life again and will be near family.  Then there's the Liene that's screaming no at the top of her lungs not sure she wants to give up this nomad lifestyle.  Moving has giving me the opportunity to live in some pretty cool places and some not so cool places and meet some great friends.

The packers come a week from tomorrow to pack up all our belongings and then load them on to the truck to haul up to our new house in Indy.  There's so much to do before then.  We're still weeding through our stuff and reorganizing.  We have to figure out where we're going to pack up the stuff we don't want the movers moving because we are going to do it ourselves.  There's not much but enough to probably fill up the back of my minivan.  I'm thankful my mom is taking the kids back to Indy on Monday so Lane and I can deal with the movers without having kids in the way.  

And I'm finally going to show a photo of our new house.  It's been sitting empty for the past 3 weeks and I didn't want to show it since we weren't living in it yet.  But now, my family is over at the house every day painting and doing stuff I've hired my brother & father's company to do.  The kids love the house and the yard.

The picture was taken in early spring before the leaves started to bloom.  I actually pulled it off the MLS listing when we found the house and wanted to look at it.  We've got some landscaping to do.  There are a number of bushes that we'd like to take out and the lawn likely needs to be treated to keep it pretty.  And I'm hoping I can still plant flowers when I get there to add some color to the landscaping.  Slowly but surely we'll get the house to completely suit our taste.  But it's in a small, quiet neighborhood and the best part is that unlike the neighborhood I'm living in now, the houses have space between them and are not stacked one on top of the other and we have no neighbors behind us.

New House & Memorial Day Weekend

A week ago Friday, we became Indiana homeowners.  It feels really weird owning a house that I won't move into for another 3 weeks.  I'm so ready to move out of the cheaply made tract house that I'm living in now and into something bigger, and more well built.  The people we bought the house from were the only owners.  They built the house.  If you include the finished basement it's at least 800 sq ft bigger than what we live in now.  I'm so glad we decided to rent when we moved to Atlanta.  Very little in our neighborhood is selling but based on the house I live in, I can see why.  It's poor construction and the asking price of houses in our neighborhood are about the same as what we paid for our house in Indiana.  We my brother has lots of painting to do.  The majority of the house on the inside is original paint and probably hasn't been touched in the 13 yrs the house has been standing.  Plus it's just not our taste.  Also there are gold door handles and a few light fixtures that need to be changed out.  All in good time.  The painting is the big thing.  I'm hoping they can get it done before we move in.  My father & brother's home repair and remodel company has a lot of work currently lined up and since we get the family discount we aren't priority.  So we'll see.  But the kids love their new house.  They are looking forward to having a yard again.  They are looking forward to being 5 minutes from my parents and their pool.  They're looking forward to being near their cousins.  It's going to be an adjustment after spending the last 15 yrs moving but it'll be nice to be settled too.

We had a good time in Indiana last weekend.  My cousin had her confirmation into the Lutheran church and I got to see cousins I hadn't seen in awhile.  Including my cousin M and her daughter B who are moving from Angola to Laos.  She and her husband are teachers at international schools although I think she may have transitioned to SAHM.  They met in Latvia.  Moved to Angola and now are going to be on their way to Laos in August.  It's not very often that my dad and his 3 siblings are together but I think as they get older, they're trying to spend more time together.  It was a really nice time and the weekend went by way too fast.  I definitely didn't get to spend nearly the time I wanted to with family.  We were just so wrapped up in all the house stuff.  We ended up going out and buying a fridge just hours before we headed back to Atlanta.  Went back and forth on a French-door fridge and decided that the extra $300-$400 was not worth it so we got a side-by-side that was on sale and got an extra 10% military discount.  It was worth it.

The next couple weeks are going to be complete chaos.  I'm hoping to blog a few times this month but we'll see.  Lane's retirement ceremony is less than 3 weeks away.  The moving company comes 3 weeks from today to pack up all our worldly goods to move to Indiana.  I've got a million and 1 phone calls to make.  A garage sale to hold to get rid of the stuff we won't need in the new house.  Dr's appointments, etc.  Like I said - chaos.  I'm banking on not knowing if I'm coming or going in about 10 days.  This week alone is going to make me lose my mind.

With that being said, it's time to get to my list of stuff to do.  Enjoy the photos below!